Macomb Motors was a long time business at 201 South Lafayette Street in Macomb. The busy corner just south of the Courthouse Square has long been the location of transportation needs -from carriages to automobiles, from parking to gas stations. The long-standing brick building has become a figure for many as the place where they purchased their first car or hung out to get all the “news” about town.
For much of the late 1800s, the corner was the location of a carriage house run by a number of different owners. Amos and Jemima (Mima) Lodge owned the property and were involved in the carriage business for many years. By June of 1916 with Amos’ death, the property came to Jemima.
In 1906 Ford Motors was able to produce 100 cars a day. Within ten years 15 million cars had been sold and the automobile was here to stay. During these years the business at the corner of Washington and Lafayette Streets began to offer services for the new automobile, including tires and radiator repair. In 1925 The Macomb Daily Journal reports that Jemima Lodge had made a very forward-looking decision. “…the of building on the corner of Lafayette and Washington streets, known for over 50 years as the Lodge corner, has recently been wrecked to make room for a large garage for the Ford people.”
On August 8, 1925, the Macomb Daily Journal, reports more details about who was going to operate the new business. “J.E. Carson & Sons, one of the most prominently known business arms of the county, have sold their business in this city to Reginald A. York, John McCreery, and James E. Trapp, all of Rushville. They will start in business Monday in the building on South Lafayette street now occupied by the Strum Tin Shop until the new building which is adjacent and on which construction has just started, is completed.”
The article goes on to report that Ford has become one of the most rapid-growing businesses in the country, affirming Jemima’s decision to recraft her husband’s well-respected carriage business to address the changing times.
In another Macomb Daily Journal article the building is described as measuring 90 x 90 feet and that the owner, Mrs. J. C. Lodge will build it. While it is clear she is building with the intent that the Ford Dealership will be her tenant, there is no documentation of their agreement. Recently, the grandson of John McCreery, Jack Martin recorded an oral history about his family and shared his memories about the Macomb Motors business. The above recording is an excerpt of that interview.
When Jack was asked how the three owners found themselves in business, Jack explained that the three owners where brothers-inlaw. The McCreery family of Rushville had three surviving children: Mary who married Reginal A. York, Sarah who married James E. Trapp and John McCreery. James Trapp, who was known as Trappie, had worked for a Ford Dealer in Rushville and brought the business opportunity to the others. Fanny McCreery the mother of John, Mary, and Sarah, wanted her children to have the means to make a living and was persuaded to help finance the Ford franchise business. The agreement was that each of them would own a fourth of the business.
Jack Martin describes this as how the young families got their start in business together that would last for over four decades. They all moved to Macomb and became well-known automobile dealers in the new building constructed for them by Jemima Lodge. Lodge Corner entered its next chapter driven by the automobile.